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Cobra GPS
So far I find the Cobra unit is very accurate and has all the features I need. I like the large screen and voice directions. The only problem is I can't get an additional windshield holding mount. So I have to move the holder from vehicle to vehicle. Cobra does not offer additional mounts for the 4000 unit. Overall for the price it is an excellent buy.GPSM 4000
I just had this over the weekend and only payed 125 so heres my thoughts. For what I paid for it I can't complain about what it is/isnt. But if I would have sunk any real cash into this I'de be sending it back. This is a very good sub $200 gps. Heres what you should really know. It has speech. but limited text to speech. So basically if you want a gps to tell you all the street names.. Not happening here. I added all the updates when I got it so I can tell you the 3d graphics.. like you see now on most gps's (like tomtom) is not as good. also you really have to clean your windshield before you stick this on your dash. I had it come off the glass 2x already in 3 days. It is a pretty hefty item to hang from a suction cup. I ended up placing it so it actually rests on the dash while attached to the window. Good points. The screen auto adjusts to the daylight/or lack of the navigation is spot on. with the update installed I dont have the problems others have/ I had the updates on before I ever test drove it. The voice commands are clear but mechanical sounding female voice. You would think the a gps that actually has a microdrive inside could have added other voices to the package. I got the database update. so I can not comment on how the new maps compare to the old. But the last update is 2006 and its close but not perfect. One quirky thing about this is it has modest actual street address finding.. It will list roads when it can not find the actual address. in a couple cases it says "no data" this is no big problem just annoying. for what i payed for it its great. The 5 inch screen.. 4.4 actual inches and a icon strip on the side is a lot easier to see than the tomtom go. May not mean much to you younger people but when you get older this is a selling point. If you can latch onto one cheap its a 4.5 at +200 a 3.5. I forgot to add with the updates. it doesn't jump page to page like mentioned in other reviews.. it moves along just like a tomtom.Not worth any amount of $$$ - You will get lost if you use this!!!
Bought this unit for the big screen size and some other reviews that I had read. What a mistake. The unit operated for a few weeks OK with the turn by turn directions a major plus. However, after the initial break in period the unit lost all inputed memory which wouldn't have been a problem for me, but my wife was on business trip and she can't read a map from a Victoria's Secret catalog. Anyway, she lost the home memory function and manually inputed our address. After traveling 3 hours she was directed to the middle of the state, about 2 hours from our house where she called me and I was able to help her get home although she was 4 hours and 300 extra miles late! Went to the Cobra website for FAQ's about the problem or maybe a software patch, which there was one for this unit from 2 years ago, later than what I had installed, downloaded it, installed it and next time we stared the car there was a loss of internal memory and the unit stated in the welcome screen that there is possibly an update to the system memory. Called Cobra tech support, they told me to send it back and they updated the BIOS and installed the same update which I had done previously. This worked for 2 days with the same result after that with all loss of inputed memory. In summary if you want to buy this product you should be pretty sure of the warranty and possibly what the return restrictions are as some stores won't accept returns of used GPS units. If all the inputs you made to the memory drop off and you can't retrieve it don't even hesitate and call Cobra support at 773-889-3087 to ask how to return this model as it seams they can't even fix it. So don't waste your time and hard earned money, buy another brand.Excellent Product
I purchased this item after spending days reading other reviews on various products. I have a navigation system in my BMW and was hoping for one just as good to use in my motorhome. This one is actually better than the BMW navigation system.Solid Affordable Aftermarket Navigation, but...
After a disasterous experience with a Sony NavU70 unit and after considering the Garmin system owned by a friend, and after doing extensive research and demoing some products at the local Circuit City, I finally selected the Cobra GPSM4000 sight unseen and bought it through Amazon. Frankly I wasn't expecting too much, and the appearance of the unit struck me as a little retro (too much chrome for my taste, as though this unit had been designed as an add-on for old GM vehicles). But when I put it in my 4x4 I was impressed. Although the manual warns you that it can take up to 20 minutes for a brand-new unit to orient itself based on the signals received from the orbiting satellites, the Cobra 4000 oriented itself within 60 seconds of being turned on. It was so quick that I found myself wondering if the people at the factory had somehow pre-programmed my location. The screen is nice and bright, the touch-screen functionality is just the right degree of sensitivity, and all the key parameters are tunable through the menu options so you can customize the unit to perform according to your own preferences. New locations are simple to store (which makes waypointing easy) and the system provides breadcrumbs which is essential for off-roading. The Sony unit referred to earlier in this review was an ergonomic disaster and didn't support breadcrumbs nor simple location storage. It was pretty, though. As real-time traffic data comes on-stream in the USA the real-time traffic option will become more worthwhile. I didn't purchase this option with my unit because it's not really available yet in my region and besides, there's no alternative when the local freeway is jammed. There is no route work-around possible, so it wouldn't help me much on a day-to-day basis. But one day, when the service is cheap and there are alternative routes to be found, it will be a worthwhile addition to the repertoire of all in-car navigation systems. I really like the larger screen size, though while it is technically 5 inches in diameter the actual map size is about 4.5 inches because the borders are occupied with soft keys. Still, that beats the 3 inch and 3.5 inch screens found on other units like Garmin and Magellan and TomTomGo. Voice prompting is nice & crisp, but the on-screen direction arrow with distance indicator is a little small, for those situations when you want to check whether it's the next turn or the one 50 feet after that. Some GPS units scroll smoothly as you travel, keeping the cursor in the center of the map. The system in my Acura does that and I've become used to it. The Cobra unit works the other way: the cursor representing your vehicle travels across the screen and then, just as it reaches the edge of the screen, the entire map "jumps" to a new page and the process starts all over again. While my preference is for the Honda/Acura approach, the "jumping page" is something I can live with and isn't too distracting in practice. I care more about the accuracy of the unit and the Cobra is very accurate and fast to adjust. The unit comes with a windscreen mount, but there's also a base plate in case you want to mount it to a horizontal surface. I was somewhat concerned about placing the unit in the windscreen area because off-road in the desert in the middle of the day it can get awfully hot right there, even with the A/C blowing hard. So I chose to purchase the optional external GPS receiver, which I mounted in the windshield area, and I placed the Cobra unit in the center binnacle where it is easy to see yet out of the direct sunlight (which also improves general visibility, as the screen never washes out because of being hit by direct light). UPDATE: February 26th 2007. After taking the unit on its first extended trip (3 hours) it exhibited a major defect. After 25 minutes of continuous operation the unit began emitting a hot metal smell and the upper left portion of the screen became hot to touch; simultaneously the upper left portion of the screen turned dark and no longer displayed anything. After another 5 minutes the screen began to blink on and off rapidly, rendering it useless. Turning on the A/C and directing a stream of icy air at the unit did nothing to ameliorate the problem. Beach Audio accepted the return of the unit and shipped me a replacement; I have not yet taken the replacement on a long (3+ hours) trip to see whether the new unit overheats like the old one did. Hopefully it was a one-off manufacturing defect as apart from the malfunction I was pleased with the previous unit. Second Update: as of August 2008 the replacement is still functioning as intended. I'm irritated by the fact that it can take up to 15 minutes to acquire satellites upon start of the journey (afterwards it acquires almost instantly), and I've discovered that the database of street addresses is quirky - a location in Tahoe Vista was listed as being in Sacramento, even though the on-map icon was correctly placed in Tahoe Vista. Now that the unit has come down to around $200 I think it's OK for the money, but as I originally paid about $500 I think it was overpriced back then. Realistically there are much better units on the market now, and I'd definitely advise people to go with an integrated Bluetooth and MP3 functionality in any new standalone unit these days.Keyword : nav
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